News and Events

Publication: The City

This was about us: John McCain as an author, a teacher, and a thousandth point of light

By Dr. Matthew Boyleston “I’m freer than colleagues who will face the voters again. I can speak my mind without fearing the consequences much.” So says Senator John McCain in his final book, The Restless Wave. When one reads over the entire cannon of McCain’s books, one wonders when he ever felt constrained when speaking …

Using Horses for Emotional Healing

By Karen Frederick, Ph.D., LPC God has put an amazing variety of animals on this earth for our help and pleasure. Most horse owners are well aware of the therapeutic value of horses. Working with horses and participating in their care, feeding, and grooming has been found to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and improve overall …

C.S. Lewis the Psychologist

By Louis Markos, PhD C. S. Lewis is universally hailed as the greatest Christian apologist of the twentieth century. He also continues to be highly respected as a literary critic, particularly of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and as an insightful lay philosopher, theologian, and ethicist. What is less recognized today is that Lewis was …

Christianity, Mind, and Mental Health

By Jeffrey H. Green, PhD One of the fun parts about being dean of The Graduate School at Houston Baptist University is working with my colleagues across campus. For example, while I am a philosopher by training, I have my office in the nursing building, I get to celebrate our graduate students in the visual …

You Should Take Latin: Pragmatic Reasons for Studying a Dead Language

By Steven L. Jones, Ph.D “The best grounding for education is the Latin Grammar.” “You should take Latin.” I bombard almost every student I meet on campus with this phrase. So much so that normally students see me coming and instead of running away turn to meet me and see how long it takes for …

Plucked Out of the Burning: Beowulf and Salvaging the Classics

“And ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning.” Amos 4:11 The October 1731 edition of the London Gentleman’s Magazine reports the following: A Fire broke out in the House of Mr. Bently, adjoining to the King’s School near Westminster Abbey, which burnt down that part of the …

Tanquam Explorator: A Classical Model for Christian Readers

By Dr. Emily E. Stelzer I once participated in a panel on John Milton’s theology where a majority of those in the audience were non-specialists and Southern Baptists. In the question-and-answer portion of the event, someone from the audience raised a simple, important question that for some reason I did not anticipate, a question one …

A Classic Is a Story that Might Save Us: Meditations on the Christian Gospel and Plato’s Story of Er

By Dr. Gary Hartenburg 1. At the end of Plato’s Republic, Socrates recounts for his friend, Glaucon, a story he once heard about a man named Er who fell in battle and was laid on a pyre, but after twelve days, returned from among the dead. This is how Socrates ends his retelling of Er’s story: …

Rethinking the Reformation Reliance upon the Middle Ages

By Dr. David J. Davis On August 29, 1518, a 21-year-old Philip Melanchthon gave his inaugural address at the University of Wittenberg. Only four days into his job as professor of Greek, Melanchthon energized the audience with a narrative of Western thought that lamented the loss of classical learning in the Middle Ages, as well …

Paul and the Classical World of His Time

By Dr. Craig A. Evans That Paul, the “apostle to the Gentiles,” frequently engaged the classical world of his time should come as no surprise at all. The Christian Church of the early centuries simply could not avoid the culture of the Greeks and Romans; it was everywhere around them. In fact, it was Christianity’s …